Why StrongBox Beats Disk for Long-Term Archiving. Here s how to build an accessible, protected long-term storage strategy for $.003 per GB/month.

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1 Why StrongBox Beats Disk for Long-Term Archiving Here s how to build an accessible, protected long-term storage strategy for $.003 per GB/month.

2 The True Cost of Archival Data We keep purchasing more disk storage. That s the most common answer to how businesses keep up with expanding data storage requirements. It is a common belief that low-cost disk storage is the simplest and least expensive solution for keeping file data for the long term. However, the cost of using diskbased storage for long-term data preservation extends far beyond acquisition expenses, including power/cooling, maintenance and physical resources needed to manage the system. This paper examines the costs related to keeping data long term as presented in the 2014 total cost of ownership (TCO) study from Brad Johns Consulting, LLC. The results are clear. StrongBox vs. Low-Cost Disk $180,872 TCO VS. $377,552 TCO StrongBox delivers a $200K TCO savings over 5 years. $.003/GB per month 52% TCO improvement over 5 years 90% less energy cost 44% reduction in capital cost What is StrongBox? StrongBox is a network-attached storage (NAS) appliance built to lower the costs of long-term storage and protection for unstructured data and fixed content. By pairing a flexible, policydriven disk cache with LTFS tape technology, StrongBox empowers you to control storage costs without sacrificing data availability. Total cost of storing 1PB of data over 5 years Figure 1 *StrongBox & V80 refers to a StrongBox T10 appliance and VSeries V80 tape library with LTO 6 drives and media. Monthly cost was derived by taking the total TCO and dividing it into equal parts over 60 months. Costs may vary based on configuration. Please see the appendices for full research details and cost variables. 1

3 What s the Difference? Backup vs. Archive Backup Copies of current data Routine and ongoing Not accessed unless original is damaged; often difficult to retrieve Archive Protected copy of fixed content and unstructured data Does not require backup Designed for infrequent access Beyond Cost: Considerations for Long-Term Digital Data Preservation Most businesses are challenged by the massive growth of unstructured data and fixed file content. They need or want to keep this data for long or indefinite periods. At the same time, data must be available and accessible to users. In order to meet long-term requirements, data also needs to be resilient, protected or maintained as an immutable copy. What these businesses need is an archive solution for longterm data preservation. End users often ask, Does keeping a second copy on a second disk meet the archiving requirements of a protected, resilient and immutable copy of data? The answer is no. Typically, users continue to purchase more disk storage resources to keep pace with their data growth, and then use backup to create a second copy (the protected copy). The majority of users call this protected copy their archive copy. There are several drawbacks to this approach for long-term storage. Primarily, it s very expensive. In the typical enterprise, percent of content on primary disk storage is fixed content and will rarely be accessed again. Keeping this infrequently accessed content on high-performance disk dramatically increases the cost of storage over the life of the data. Without additional data protection software, a disk-only solution is simply providing an unmanaged, unprotected second copy of the data, not a true archive. Best practices require that the archival file is maintained as the immutable copy, protected from corruption or loss. The disk-based solution must be used in combination with other software in order to be compared to the overall cost and value delivered by a solution like StrongBox. True Cost of Disk Capacity For the purposes of this TCO comparison, only low-cost, high capacity disk is evaluated. Additionally, the cost of disk storage is often quoted based on raw capacity, not useable capacity. To reduce the risk of data loss, disk systems utilize a number of RAID schemas. For a disk archive, a RAID 6 or RAID 10 solution is often proposed. These RAID levels reduce the amount of disk available in a 12 HDD array by 17 and 50 percent respectively. The comparison is made against StrongBox and usable disk capacity after accounting for RAID. As shown in Figure 1, the acquisition costs alone are 44 percent less for StrongBox than for a comparable amount of disk storage. 2

4 The Complexity of Disk In order to build a disk-based solution that is functionally comparable to StrongBox, data protection software such as backup and/or deduplication must be added. While technically this approach can be used to create an archival copy of data, it is complex to manage and increases long-term cost. It also lacks many of the features required for providing online data access. Difficulty with Protection: Deduplication and Backup While data deduplication solutions are attractive for backup data, they introduce new challenges and may not generate savings when applied to long-term data. At its core, data deduplication technology reduces physical storage requirements by chunking the data at ingest, identifying duplicate chunks and, if the chunk already exists, replacing the data with a pointer and updating the repository index. The potential benefit of deduplication is affected by a number of factors including the rate of change of data, the number of redundant copies, and the period of time over which the deduplication is applied. In an archive environment, there is only one managed copy of the file, not many different copies; hence, one of the factors that contributes to deduplication efficiency is minimized. In addition, the chunking technology utilized by deduplication solutions raises important issues for an archive; the stored formats are proprietary, creating dependency on the deduplication technology for later recall. At a minimum, this requires a commitment to on-going maintenance and support expenses over long periods of time. At worst, it could require migrations of the archive repository due to end-of-life of the deduplication solution. Deduplication also raises the risk of potential data loss. A deduplication repository consists of a myriad of data chunks that require access to the deduplication system index for reconstitution. Due to this chunking, and depending on the business requirements, deduplicated data may not be acceptable as the immutable copy. In addition, if the repository index is corrupted, the ability to access the stored files is lost. Technologies like deduplication obscure the physical location of data and impair the ability to physically account for and track the file, which significantly complicates data access and retrieval. As time passes, this same process gets even more difficult. With an archive, the simpler the access to the data is, the better. Finally, in the event of migration or large data transfers, a data deduplication system can suffer from lengthy recall times as a result of having to rehydrate the data. While disk archiving solutions that include backup and deduplication software might seem appealing at first, upon deeper analysis they can quickly become expensive, increase business risk, and introduce management complexity for long-term data preservation. 3

5 Archive Requirements: StrongBox Meets Them All Experts agree that long-term archives include several important requirements to ensure that data is protected and resilient. Common requisites include: Long-term accessibility. Since archival data is retained long term, it s important to eliminate requirements for proprietary software. Data should be stored in an open format, such as LTFS. File and media integrity checks. An archive should include the ability to check files and media to ensure they have not been tampered with or altered in any way. Policy-based data management. Users should be able to control data performance via policies. For example, some data may have a high likelihood of recall and should be placed on disk storage; or, perhaps an immutable copy is required. Multiple copies of data. The creation of a single copy is unlikely to meet archival needs. Best practice is to create at least three protected copies, maintaining an onsite copy for availability and at least one offsite copy for disaster recovery. Simple, cost-effective scalability. In many cases archival data has decadeslong retention requirements and could be doubling every few years, making it essential that the infrastructure scale for long-term data growth. Minimal power and cooling. Disk storage continually utilizes energy, even when idle. This wastes energy and increases costs. Given that an archive is a multi-year project, the long-term power costs must be considered. StrongBox meets all of these requirements in one economical and easy-to-use solution. Low-end disk solutions struggle to meet them even when incorporating the necessary software. Making the Archive Simple, Seamless and Secure Due to preceived high costs and complexity, many organizations don t implement an archive. As discussed previously, many companies default to a strategy of simply creating more disk copies of data and ultimately end up with many, unmanaged copies of data spread across the enterprise. According to IDC, 85 percent of storage hardware purchases and 65 percent of storage software purchases are currently being expended in support of excess copies of data. i An effective archiving project solves this data copy problem for fixed content and unstructured data. StrongBox is a simple shared storage (NAS) solution, making archive implementation easier than ever before. Users can set up StrongBox on their network and start writing files to it via automated policies or simple dragand-drop from a standard file system. StrongBox files are online and accessible in the original file format and are always protected. 4

6 StrongBox meets archive requirements while lowering storage TCO more than 50%. Product highlights: Built-in data protection Tunable performance Infinitely scalable Vendor neutral and non-proprietary with LTFS Long-term reliability The Bottom Line: Scale, Protect and Save with StrongBox While traditional disk storage may initially seem attractive for long-term archiving, it becomes expensive once all the true costs are considered. As the archive grows, a new storage approach that addresses both the technical and business requirements is needed. After all costs and requirements are considered, it is clear that StrongBox provides the most cost-effective, easily implemented and scalable solution for digital archiving. With built-in protection, policy-driven performance, and online, file-based access to the archive, StrongBox solves the most common challenges of long-term data storage and management. As a non-proprietary, protected and fully resilient archiving solution, StrongBox delivers a cost savings of more than 50 percent when compared to even the cheapest disk storage. Learn more about StrongBox here. >> 5

7 Appendices and References StrongBox product information can be found at About Crossroads StrongBox: Crossroads StrongBox is a network-attached storage (NAS) appliance that is purpose-built to lower the cost of longterm storage and protection for unstructured, fixed content. By pairing a flexible, policy-driven disk cache with Linear Tape File System (LTFS) technology, StrongBox allows organizations to gain unmatched control of storage costs without sacrificing availability of stored content. Visit References: i. The Copy Data Problem: An Order of Magnitude Analysis, IDC, 2012 The TCO study referenced in this document was completed by Brad Johns Consulting, LLC in 2014 with the following assumptions: StrongBox solution consists of a StrongBox, V80 library, LTO 6 drives and media 1PB of archive data, no copies, non-compressible data Based on StrongBox pricing April 2014 for 1PB and library StrongBox configured with T10, unlimited capacity license LTO Gen 6 media priced at $65/cartridge V80 Tape library - 3 year warranty, includes 4 LTO Gen 6 FC HH tape drives, 1 base unit and 4 expansion units 5 Year Total Cost of Ownership includes: initial acquisition, hardware and software maintenance, energy StrongBox and V80 library are calculated at MSRP 3% annual increases estimated for energy and maintenance Market-basket disk offerings configured for 87.5% useable The averaged disk price includes 4 different vendors with 5 different solutions configured with 1PB useable NAS or Object Systems using 4TB HDD s Low-end disk storage market prices Average $/TB calculated to include acquisition, energy and support Tape capacity assumes no compression and full utilization of tape (2.3 TB) All disk prices are from publicly available pricing information Best effort was made to configure the disk systems. The author believes while small variances undoubtedly exist for cost purposes, the estimates are materially correct North MoPac Expwy. Ste. 100 Austin, Texas sales@crossroads.com 2014 Crossroads Systems, Inc. - Crossroads and StrongBox are registered trademarks of Crossroads Systems, Inc. Crossroads is a trademark of Crossroads Systems, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. SB_052714_WP